President Joe Biden is, for all practical purposes, a lame-duck president, and that may embolden terrorists in the Middle East, Victoria Coates says.

“Unfortunately, we're in this unprecedented situation, where it's almost not clear who the commander in chief of the United States is," says Coates, vice president of the Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

“We haven't heard from the president. We haven't seen the president,” says Coates, who also served as deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, adding that Biden has had “nothing on his schedule for days now.” 

“Is the vice president essentially filling this role?” Coates asked. “It's not in her constitutional powers to do so, although she may be doing it in all practical ways. But my concern is, given that unprecedented flux and confusion, that the normal Iranian decision-making will be altered, and they might do something they wouldn't have tried even two months ago.” 

In the wake of an airstrike that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran on Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says revenge is Iran’s “duty.” 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps also threatened Israel, claiming that the “Zionist regime will face a harsh and painful response from the powerful and huge resistance front, especially Islamic Iran.”

The strike was carried out right after the Hamas leader attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran, but this was not the only deadly strike in the Middle East this week. 

Israel carried out a strike in Beirut on Tuesday, killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah leader. The U.S. also mounted a strike in Iraq that U.S. officials described as “self-defense.”

With growing concerns over the strikes leading to possible severe escalation in the region, Coates joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the likelihood of retaliatory strikes on Israel and the U.S. 

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